Big Data

A key finding in 2013 was that 42% of global business leaders don’t have confidence in any decisions made, due to a lack of information or easy access to it. Organizational barriers are affecting decision-making, with 45% ranking ‘closed door decision-making’ without having the right people or data involved.

Invest in data. You need data. You need tools to collect, store, analyze and present data.

Invest in experience. Put yourself and your people in situations that allow you to build your skills and expertise.

Marry the two when it matters. Automate what you can. Allow people to exercise their judgment when you can. But when the risk/reward ratio is high insist on people starting with real data and applying their experience.

Big data adoption pattern

Educate – Explore – Engage – Execute

Leaders should work hand in hand with functional managers to craft a business model using these technologies to cost-efficiently serve individual needs.

Profitable mass customization appears to be within reach, and companies that seize the opportunity could build loyalty, increase revenue, and gain a competitive advantage.

Realizing new efficiencies to free up resources, moving quickly toward more flexible and scalable next-generation infrastructure, mitigating risks in alignment with business priorities, and improving execution for seamless delivery will be key.

IT infrastructure managers must simultaneously capture the next rounds of efficiencies, accelerate the transition to next-generation infrastructure, reduce risks, and improve organizational execution.

Technology expenses can be high, but they are relatively small compared with their potential to boost the operating performance of the business. Technology can improve business performance by driving revenues (for example, by using big data for cross-selling in digital channels), reducing overall costs (for instance, by automating end-to-end processes), and lowering risk costs (for example, in insurance, by using social-media data to aid risk calculations).

Leading businesses measure and manage both business and IT agility, ensuring that the business can respond competitively.